China hackers access Google e-mail accounts

Of course the fact that the hacking originated in China is just coincidence. So was the fact that anti-government activists and US government officials were targeted.

Google has announced that a hacking attack originating in China has successfully compromised personal e-mail accounts of hundreds of top US officials, military personnel and journalists.

Google says the hacking a campaign to obtain passwords originated in Jinan, China and was aimed at monitoring e-mail.

Google says its own security was not breached but did concede that individuals’ passwords were obtained through fraud.

The US internet giant also said that Chinese political activists and government officials in other Asian countries were also targeted.

“Google detected and has disrupted this campaign to take users’ passwords and monitor their emails,” the company said on Wednesday.

“We have notified victims and secured their accounts. In addition, we have notified relevant government authorities.”

In Washington, the White House said it was investigating the reports but did not believe official US government e-mail accounts had been breached.

The e-mail scam uses a practice called “spear phishing” where specific e-mail users are tricked into divulging their login credentials to a web page that resembles Google’s Gmail web service (or which appears related to the target’s work) but is in fact run by hackers.

Having obtained the user’s e-mail login and password, the hackers then tell Gmail’s service to forward incoming e-mail to another account set up by the hacker.

Newswarped thinks this type of attack is going to become more commonplace as he world becomes increasingly reliant on electronic comunication. It is the new Wi-Fi spying of the 21st Century.